The following teaser is from an interesting article about a little-known program to get Swedes to immigrate to Vermont.
EAST DUMMERSTON, VT. — Until recently, Earl Cavanagh didn’t know that many of his ancestors came to Vermont from Sweden as part of a short-lived state-run program to help repopulate the abandoned hill farms with people accustomed to the rigors of living and working in a challenging rural environment.
Cavanagh learned how his Swedish ancestors came to Vermont from Lyndon State College history professor Paul Searls, who is researching a book on the topic….
Searls stumbled onto the Swedish immigration project while writing another book, and he saw newspaper articles from across the country on the Swedish immigration program. Now, he’s writing a book on the program.
